La Ruche Moderne

A short trip to San Sebastien in Northern Spain, for work last month, meant I had to fly into Biarritz then drive the 40 mins to the Spanish town. Knowing I'd have a little while before I had to be in Spain I contacted Vincent of Bixente Moto to see if I could visit the workshop I'd heard about, in Anglet, the town next to Biarritz. Vincent gave me the address, but it turned out it was to his new place, La Ruche Moderne. Still, I wasn't complaining.

The painting on the outside was done by ex-pat American Steven Burke who works under the name, Lucky Left Hand.

La Ruche Moderne (LRM) is a multi-purpose building. It has a bar and canteen area, with a BSA desert sled parked in the middle. The canteen hosts corporate events and parties, with enough room for a band to play and a wall for films to be projected onto.

At the back is a small display for Vincent and his wife's men's underwear brand - Hemen Biarritz.
Mrs Inman is stood in the middle, helping give scale. The car in the top left corner helps too.

Also at the back is Vincent's wife's collection of Polaroid cameras. They all still work, he says.

 Above the rusty bar is a store area for Vincent's hoard of old stuff...

 Ancient mini-bikes...

Prehistoric skateboards...

1960 and 1970s Schwinn and Raleigh choppers

 Next to the canteen is a long workshop and bike storage area and garage.

Old Harley, JD, I think.           Old Indian

 Vincent and Ronald.

Vincent's daily rider BSA is always evolving. It raced at Dirt Quake II and thrashes around Wheels and Waves annually.

Read more about this great fella and his bike, in a previous guise, in Sideburn 16 (see below). G

"Put brew on 'r' Ken" "One lump or two?"

Guy Martin and Kenny Noyes in heavy discourse at the Noyes Camp in Spain. I wonder what they are really saying?
photo Anthony Brown. BP

SB ♥ Kristina

Kristina Fender is a classic racing monkey. Not some cruel wired-up Indian street performer, it means she's a die-hard sidecar passenger who clambers all over the vehicle with her arse scraping the tarmac so as to maintain equilibrium as the rider pushes something with the natural stability of a shopping cart with one duff wheel. She has no fear. At Wheels & Waves she was shooting sitting backwards on a motorbike so she could remain in the thick of the action (while the film cars had to make-do with a few seconds at the front before being engulfed with overtaking bikes, then having to just sweep-up at the back).

Here she is on the back of the El Solitario Petardo Ducati, shooting the SB#16 cover story in Tudela Spain. The rider is Frederic Olivieri. This snap is taken from the El Solitario Instagram feed. BP

John Roeder

Age is the best disguise for someone's past. It's hard to imagine the old guy sat on a park bench fearlessly fighting in a war or drunkenly brawling outside a football ground. It's difficult to picture the old lady, the one with the thinning hair and papery skin, as a 20-year-old raver looking for illicit thrills round the back of the butcher's.

Now, John Roeder isn't that old, and the two-piece leathers he turned up to a DTRA race in a few years ago did give us a clue he had some race history, but we didn't know just how much till we spent a winter's morning in his dining room going through old scrapbooks.

We have distilled ten years of John's racing and memories from competing in Florida and beyond in the 1970s into ten pages of Sideburn 16 and we're already getting great feedback on the story from subscribers. Get your issue for just £5 plus post from the Sideburn webshop. G

Sideburn 16 - Pre Order

Sideburn 16 is at the printer. It's a goodie!

100 finely printed pages of wholesome goodness, including:
El Solitario Petardo
The history of the Harley XR750
1970s Florida flat track memories
Jim Rice
Kenny Roberts
Suzuki Savage LS650 tracker
Modified Royal Enfields going wild in the Himalayas
450cc Formula 2 Speedway prototypes
The Barbara Fritchie Classic
Bixente BSA
Travis's poetry...

Pre-order yours at the Sideburn webshop. It'll be sent out on or before January 31.

Jim Rice for SB16

Continuing our series of Who, What, Why interviews with racing legends we have Jim Rice lined up for issue 16, out in early 2014. If you're missing any back issues, this is who we have conducted exclusive interviews with so far...

Issue 3 Dick Mann
4 Don Castro
5 Dave Aldana
6 Gene Romero
7 Eddie Lawson
8 Scott Parker
9 Jay Springsteen
10 Chris Carr
11 Bubba Shobert
12 Steve Morehead
13 Mert Lawwill
14 Joe Kopp
15 Nick Hayden

Buy back issues at the Sideburn webshop